


The Mother Come Out

by sunkelles



Series: Femslash February 2018 [7]
Category: One Day at a Time (TV 2017)
Genre: Coming Out, F/F, Family Bonding, Femslash February
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-25
Updated: 2018-02-25
Packaged: 2019-03-16 01:43:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13625901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunkelles/pseuds/sunkelles
Summary: Does Penelope Alvarez is gay?





	The Mother Come Out

**Author's Note:**

  * For [titaniumsansa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/titaniumsansa/gifts).



> this isn't set in the same universe as my other penelope/jill fic but i really, really want a series called one day at a time just for the pun

Penelope and Jill have been dating for a while now, and they’re getting pretty serious, too.  Penelope wants to keep seeing her for the foreseeable future. A relationship that her family doesn’t know about isn’t sustainable, though. She knows that if she wants this thing with Jill to go anywhere, she has to tell her family about it. Penelope gathers up her courage as she walks through the door to her apartment. 

“I have an announcement to make,” she says. None of her family members even look up from their respective screens.

“I’m in a relationship,” Penelope says. All eyes in the room shoot up from their screens.

“Why didn’t you lead with that?” Alex demands.

“I thought that my family would be excited, no matter what I’m announcing,” Penelope says.

“Eh,” Alex says. He shrugs to accentuate how little he would have cared if the announcement were anything else.

“Who is he?” Lydia demands.

“She, actually,” Penelope says. If this were two years ago, even, clarifying this to her mother would have terrified her. Now that Elena has come out, though, Penelope knows that everything will be alright.

“I _knew_ it,” Elena says, grinning widely. She looks ready to start doing a happy dance, and Penelope can’t tell if it’s because she likes women too or because Elena already knew that.

It feels weird that Elena had to be the trailblazer in this area, but Penelope never actually realized she liked women before this. There were crushes, sure, but bisexuality wasn’t something she ever knew about. She liked men, so whatever attraction she felt towards women must have been inconsequential. She knows better now, thanks to Elena, thanks to Jill.

“Am I the only one in this family who does not like women?” Lydia asks.

“Well,” Penelope says, “yeah. Apparently.”

“Their loss, then. I may not want the women, but the women still want me,” Lydia says, pointing a finger towards the sky.

“Yes, mamí, the gay women are all falling at your feet.”

“All the ladies want Lydia. All of the men want Lydia. All of the, what is it that Syd is? Non-gendered?”

“Nonbinary,” Elena says.

“And all of the _nonbinary_ people want Lydia!”

“Yeah,” Elena says, “I can confirm that Syd isn’t into you, abuelita.”

“Why do you think they’re dating you?” Lydia asks, “it’s to get to me.” Alex lets out a peel of laughter. It’s the sort of laughter that just keeps coming and starts to hurt your sides when it goes on for too long.

“Do not laugh, Papito,” Lydia says, “I am a very desirable woman. That is where you all get it from.” Alex laughs even harder, if that’s possible, and Elena looks more offended.

“Syd isn’t dating me to get to abuelita!” Elena says, “tell her mom!”

“You’ve gotta calm down, Elena,” Penelope says, “she’s just trying to rile you up.”

“Not trying,” Lydia says, “ _succeeding_.”

“You know,” Penelope says wistfully, “when this conversation started, it was about me.”

“Lupe,” Lydia says, “I am so sorry. I took the conversation and I made it about me.” Penelope can’t really fault her for that, though. Her mami’s self-centered, but not in a way that’s harmful, really. It’s just a part of who she is.

“Who is your girlfriend?” Lydia asks.

Penelope smiles widely as she says, “It’s Jill Riley.”

“I _knew_ it,” Lydia says, “the way you two act together- it seemed queer.” She sing-songs queer the way that she always did about Elena and Carmen.

“Abuelita, you said that about me and Carmen, and I never dated Carmen,” Elena says. Lydia shrugs.

“I call them as I see them,” Lydia says.

“So,” Elena says, “have you settled on a label yet?”

“I don’t know what I am, yet,” Penelope says. She knows some of the words that Elena’s friends use: queer, gay, bisexual, pansexual. None of them feel quite right yet. Queer feels too harsh. Gay isn’t really accurate. She thinks that when she settles on a word, it will probably be bisexual or pansexual, but she’s not sure yet. Just the idea of liking women is still so new to her. She thinks that whatever the word for her specific type of liking women is can wait a little while.

She likes Jill. She’s _dating_ Jill. That’s enough for her right now.

“That’s alright,” Elena says, “you can just be a wuh luh wuh now.”

“A what-uh-what?” Lydia asks.

“A wuh-luh-wuh,” Elena says, “That stands for woman loving woman. It’s a word for all women that like women. It doesn’t matter if they’re just lesbians, like me, or if they’re attracted to other genders too.”

“I don’t think that wuh-luh-wuh is the label I want to settle on here,” Penelope says.

“Why not?” Elena asks.

“It sounds like wahoo,” Penelope says, “I don’t want my sexuality to sound like wahoo, Elena.”

“How about sapphic?” Elena asks, “it means the same thing, but it sounds prettier.” Penelope kind of likes that one.

“I’ll consider it,” Penelope says evenly. Elena starts her happy dance.

“Mom-may is sapphic mom-may,” Elena starts chanting to the exact same meter as “dale papito or dale blanquita”.

“Is this really chant worthy?” Penelope asks. Elena wraps her up in a hug.

“Yes, mom,” she says, hugging her tightly, “it is.” Elena sounds so happy about it, Penelope understands immediately that this _is_ chant worthy. Her daughter is a trailblazer, but it’s still nice to not be on the trail alone. Penelope hugs her back.

“You have to bring her over for dinner,” Lydia says. Sometimes, Penelope had worried that bringing a boyfriend home for dinner could kill the relationship. With Jill, she’s sure that wouldn’t be the case.

“Jill’s a tough woman,” Penelope says, “I think that she can handle it.” Actually, she knows that Jill can handle it. The two of them are going to be fine. 


End file.
